Pick Up The Pieces
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Prompt from cybercorpsesnake: Icy has been making efforts to get her life together and make her relationship with Darko work. Darko wonders why someone as powerful as her sees in him. A story of two people and their intimate lives.


Picking up the pieces of her life wasn't nearly as easy as shattering them was. She had to look carefully at each piece and see where each was meant to fit.

A little taste of love, a job, getting back to a school. One that would accept her despite the evils she'd done.

She wasn't doing good but she wasn't doing bad either. She'd found herself a simple job as an artist. It didn't bring in a whole lot, but enough for her to make a living.

Enough to buy her the small apartment she resided in.

She gave her drawing a final blot of ink. Serving as a dark moon, it dripped slightly down the canvas from the corner...a little too close to one of the trees than she had hoped.

Part of her wanted to try to wipe it away before it dried...more of her simply didn't want to make the error worse. At least she could get away with that slight drip.

Aside from the inky moon and the black clouds, the drawing had been done in charcoal, from the twiggy dead trees to the misty haze creeping between them.

She scrawled down her signature in small cursive at the bottom. Saving room for the date in smaller print.

She'd come up with a name for it later and then kiss it goodbye as she passed over to it's commissioner.

That was how she happened upon Darko. The man, some time back, came across her art and had wanted a painting of his own. A charcoal wolf dotted with ink at the tip of each individual fur.

And the man was willing to pay a good sum for it too.

After slipping the drawing into his hands she hadn't planned on seeing him again. But he made apparently did.

He'd stop by and request more drawings, simpler drawings.

At some point he'd requested to come over to her apartment and browse her other works. The rest, Icy decided, was just useless 'd gone on a bunch of dates, had a late night drink of two, and now the man was living with her.

Apparently that large sum of money he'd spent on her was from his father's wallet and when the asshole decided to kick him to the street he kept the painting as tried to paint Darko a new one but it just wasn't the same as the first...wasn't as good as the first. Though Darko seemed to disagree.

In return for his support of her art career, Icy would occasionally see Darko's band. Icy wasn't much into folk metal but she could deal with it for him. Between the two of them, they'd managed to bring in enough money to pay bills and then some.

Since then Icy's career in art seemed to really kick itself off and on the side she'd written and published some sort of biography...one that explained why she had so much wanted to take over the Magical dimension. This appealed wildly to the psychologist that sought after insight into her psyche, to criminologists, and to the simply curious person.

From there the witch managed to land herself back into Cloud Tower. With just a semester to finish.

It was at this time when the two had found themselves fighting it out with each other. With college and two jobs she'd been pushing him to the side.

This left Darko in an insecure state, believing that she'd leave him any time now. Really, what could he offer her? She'd likely chosen to reside with him for the split rent pay and the extra income.

It also left him longing for the touch she'd once given him almost every other night.

He looked over at the woman, curled up on the bed, laying atop the covers. He tried his best to lay down without causing the mattress to dip too much.

Regardless of his efforts, Icy stirred-turning over to face him.

Staring into those tired and pale blue eyes he wondered why she hadn't yet kicked him out of _her_ bed, with a mention of how she no logger needed him.

Instead she brushed his straggly hair out of "his eyes and asked him if he was going to help her pick out a new and bigger place to stay.

"When? And why?"

She shrugged. "Tomorrow maybe? The sooner the better really." She paused. "Because I'm getting tired of this lack of space and that guy next door...the one who blasts his country-rap music at ungodly hours."

"I mean why do you want my help?"

"Because you're going to live with me...aren't you?" Icy yawned. "Unless you're having second thoughts..." she trailed off.

"No! No, second thoughts."

"Wonderful." She muttered, "then tomorrow...just make sure you remember to pick out a place with a room for my art gallery." Her words growing sleep-slurred.

Darko slid his arm over Icy's shoulder. "Honestly I just don't get what you'd want with a loser like me."

Icy sighed. "We ain't that much different really, you and I. We're both just trying to pick up the pieces aren't we...trying to make things work and sort things out..."

Darko found himself brushing through Icy's hair as he listened to her speak.

"And I think we've almost got it figured out. Just a few more bits we need to discuss." She took his hand sliding it over her tummy.

"You want kids?"

"At this point it isn't about wanting them. It's about how many more we're going to have." She replied, pressing her forehead to his. "As I said, I think we've almost put everything together. We just need to figure out the where's and the whens...shouldn't be too hard."

"That is if you're up to it." She added. Leaving the ' _and if you aren't, I'll figure something out_ ' unsaid.

"Yeah." Darko found himself grinning widely. "We can start looking for that new house tomorrow...like you said. Sounds perfect really. I'll just have to figure out what to do with my band."

She rolled her eyes. "Well don't start thinking tonight. Instead, get some sleep. We'll put the rest together tomorrow and keep putting it together from there as we go along."


End file.
